A content delivery network (CDN) may be implemented as a plurality of geographically dispersed real or virtual servers, data centers and the like linked via a public or private network, where each of the servers or data centers provides content to geographically proximate clients. A CDN may improve end-to-end content delivery to end-users by caching popular content closer to such users, by balancing server or data center loads, by transporting content between servers or data centers according to optimized content service protocols and the like. CDN's presently serve many different types of static and dynamic content, including web objects (text, graphics, URLs and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live streaming media, on-demand streaming media, and social networks.
Unfortunately, present CDN implementations do not adequately address delivery of bandwidth-intense content to user communities having many different types of client devices, such as client devices associated with differing content presentation capabilities, differing processor or memory resources, differing encoder/decoder protocols, differing communication or transport protocols and the like.